Delivers Calzones | The Pizza Alternative
Since you’re getting this email, I assume you’ve been following our progress and may even be excited to see that we’re getting VERY close to opening. As we near the end of the beginning, we are starting to look for a reliable/organized/experienced/kick-a$$ person to help Mikey run the day-to-day of the store. In other words, we’re looking for a full-time manager. Instead of going to craigslist and looking for “strangers,” we thought we’d come to our trusted fans and ask if any of you have experience and are interested or know of anybody who might meet those criteria.
We are hoping to meet with people this Sunday so we can get started on the training by early August. Drop me an email or apply through our form on the website if you’re interested! We really look forward to hearing from you.
In the meantime, here are some more pics of how the store is coming along.
The walls that have been painted by Mikey himself:
Our built-in bench that wraps around half the store:
Our hot (bad pun intended) and brand-new conveyor ovens which will make your fresh, piping hot calzones in 5 minutes!
~Jacquie with the DP Dough Philly team
I’m nervous to say this but I’ll do it anyhow: we’re on schedule. Of course now that I’ve published this post I’m sure I’ve jinxed us too. Still, at this point we are on target with the drywall (aka sheet rock, hence the “witty” title) up and finished. I guess it’s easier to make progress when you aren’t held up with permit delays 
We should have the floors, ceilings, ovens and countertops in by the end of the month. Following that phase, and if we can keep on schedule, is about 2-3 weeks worth of equipment install, final touches and employee training. We’re more confident that we’ll be slinging ‘zones before July ends. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Here are some recent store pics:
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie & Jason
DP Dough Philly
The four of us DP Dough Philly founders (phounders?) consider ourselves foodies, not just entrepreneurs. With that said, one of our favorite 40th Street neighbors is James Beard Award winner Jose Garces. Here’s a quick write up about his Philly restaurants from one of my favorite newsletters.
http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/everywhere/301/Jose_Garces_brings_an_atlass_worth_of_cuisines_to_Philadelphia.htm
Distrito is our neighbor and we’ll attest that food is quite delicious. Being a Kentucky native, I’m particularly excited about his new venture — Village Whiskey
As for our store, we’ll have more progress updates very soon.
~Jason
If you’ve walked by the store lately you’ve probably wondered, “Man, are these guys doing ANYTHING?” I’m sure there are even more exasperated thoughts coming from those who are in the know about the D.P. Dough greatness.
Well, I promise you, the four of us have been quite busy.
As long time followers of our updates know, we solve one dilemma and encounter another one. Most of our holdups have come from having to rezone the store (turning a bodega into a food service eatery is quite an undertaking as we’ve discovered) and also bring it up to code. Our most recent delay was no exception. Due to lack of trash accessibility, we actually had to build our own alley out back. Shortly after getting city approval to move our neighbors fences, we did just that and then laid some concrete for the alley.
Along with completing the trash alley, we have some other great news. I’m sure you can put 2 and 2 together and surmise that these unexpected delays and extras have led to a few, to say the least, budget overages. Fortunately, we were informed of a wonderful program by The Merchants Fund. In a nutshell, they grant funds to a select number of Philly businesses who are need of some financial assistance. More specifically, it is for business that will create jobs and give back to the community that sustains them. That’s us — we can’t wait to start adding value to the 40th Street corridor — and we can’t thank them enough for a much needed and quite generous grant of up to $42,000. Oh, and did we mention we got a Happy Gilmore sized check? Friggin awesome.
The next post should include some interior shots to prove there will actually be a restaurant behind those doors.
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie & Jason
DP Dough Philly
If you happen to walk by the store for whatever reason you’ll notice S&M is gone. Of course it has been gone for a while, but now it’s a bit more official. There isn’t much else to say so here are the pics:
Painting:
Signage:
Getting there!
~DP Dough Philly
Mike, Scott, Jacquie, and Jason
Just another quick update to keep everyone in the loop! As you can see, the big ugly metal grates have been removed from the front windows and doors. We’re still working on the interior, but things are really moving along now! More updates to follow…
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie and Jason
The DP Dough Philly Team
And they will eventually open for you As you can see from the pics, we now have windows and doors. As you can also see, we still don’t have drywall up yet; that isn’t a big deal though. We’ll start sealing up the walls soon and things should move quickly at that point from an appliance/decoration standpoint.
The latest hurdle we jumped came in the form of handicap access. We were recently notified that our doorstep was a tad too high so we needed to add a ramp to the front. We thought that we would be grandfathered in (exempt) since we were moving into an existing structure, but the powers-that-be are revitalizing the area so they asked us to bring the store up to current standards. Of course that would have been easy if basement access wasn’t flanking the entrance on both sides. After Mike stayed up all night panicking, he met with our architect and discussed possibilities ranging from a lift to a reduction of interior floor space. Fortunately we settled on the easier solution: a removable ramp.
I hope that when you guys see the ramp out front, you can appreciate the story behind it
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie and Jason
The DP Dough Philly Team
Our last post said that we were going to be open on Feb 2nd and since that is a week from Monday I thought it would be good to update everyone. To start off, we probably won’t be open by Feb 2 but we will most likely be open in Feb.
I won’t go into specifics, but the hold up was a health code review. Fortunately we received the approval on our plans last week so the inspection will be soon to follow. Once the inspection happens it’s a matter of a week or two to finish up. All of our equipment is on standby, along with the tradespeople waiting to seal the walls and decorate the store.
There you have it Though we were delayed, we are extremely excited because the opening is near. I’ll post another update once the physical walk through is done and at that point we should have a much more concrete idea of opening. Thanks for bearing with us; I promise it’ll be worth the wait.
~The DP Dough Philly Team
Now that the major hurdles have been cleared (knock on wood), we’ve decided to set our “soft” opening date…
February 2, 2009
We intend on doing a Grand Opening a few weeks later after we get settled in, but ideally we will start selling our calzones that Monday. It goes without saying that until then we’ll continue to update the blog with new developments (finalized menu, phone number, etc).
See you all soon!
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie and Jason
The DP Dough Philly Team
To begin, we got our first recognition by the local print community a few weeks ago. Drew Lazor, writer for City Paper’s Meal Ticket section, stumbled upon our details and gave a quick intro to his readers.
Here’s the article: DP Dough Poised to Calzone-ify West Philly
We’re excited that locals are welcoming us to your neighborhood!
As for the store progress, we’ve gotten our permits in order and are still moving along. Here are some pics of DP Dough Philly:
As always, please shoot us an email if you have questions, comments or suggestions. If you’re looking to join our team, you can click here for the online quick app.
Thanks!
~Mike, Scott, Jacquie and Jason
The DP Dough Philly Team
